This invention relates to children""s play furniture. More particularly, this invention relates to a construction of small chairs that can be utilized by children to form playthings at home or at the nursery, crxc3xa8che or kindergarten. This invention also relates to a method of assembling and disassembling play furniture.
It is an object of this invention to provide means of construction of play furniture and an operating method that cannot harm children when in play they assemble and disassemble the play furniture.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the drawings and descriptions hereof.
The present invention is directed in part to play chairs for children and provides a tool and an operating principle or method of using the tool. Each chair has facilities to clamp one or more other chairs to its side, front or bottomxe2x80x94either in normal or upside down positionsxe2x80x94simply by plugging the peg-ends of clamps (U-shaped pieces) in connecting holes that are named slot-holes. By connecting the play chairs with the special coupling clamps, small children can make puppet furniture such as barns, high rise buildings, doll-houses, a crib, a bed, a puppet theatre, a couch, an umpire seat and so on. Toddlers may need some help to get started making their first plaything. For small children there is an increasing need to develop skills while playing. It requires tools designed to generate and challenge creativity, fantasy and locomotion ability.
The operating principle of this invention for assembling the child""s chairs is characterized by the following procedures:
releasing the idle U-shaped clamps from the storage holes by leverage with the help of a levering-end of a xe2x80x9cdesignxe2x80x9d club or stick, named clamp-lever;
combining the chairs by placing them next to each other, or alternatively, one in an upside down or reversed position on top of the other;
coupling the chairs with the clamps by engaging each peg-end of a clamp in a matching slot hole of a chair in the combination; and
tightly wedging the peg-ends in the slot holes by tapping the clamp""s bow with the fat tapping-end of the xe2x80x9cdesignxe2x80x9d club or stick, named clamp-tapper.
The methodology in this invention using the child""s chair is further characterized by the following procedures for disassembling:
positioning the levering-end of the xe2x80x9cdesignxe2x80x9d club or stick underneath the bow of a clamp that connects two of the child""s chairs;
leveraging and/or lifting the clamp out of the slot holes with the levering-club; and
putting clamps back at the storage holes.
A desired design of this invention relates to a child""s chair construction with rectangular boards for the seat, the two sides and the back. The boards"" planes are fixed together at right angles with glue and/or pegs or screws. The height of the leaning part of the back board has the same height as the seat above the ground level minus the thickness of the sitting board. In view of the many options to make combinations all boards have slot holes pierced at specifically chosen points near the edges and corners of the boards. The distance of the shortest perpendicular line between slot holes and the edge of the seat plane, the back plane and the side planes as well as the virtual front plane and the virtual ground level plane are equal and 0.5 b in length. Whereby b is a fixed distance between the peg-ends of the clamp. The distance b will be preferably about 6 centimeter when the chair is made with dimensions of 25 cm width, and 17 cm height of the seat. The diameter of the slot-holes are equal to the diameter of the peg-ends of a clamp.
In case of an upside down combination of chair couplings there are extra slot holes provided in the edges between (and parallel) the boards"" planes at the front of the side boards or in the edges between (and parallel) the seat boards"" planes. The distance between matching slot-holes of the first chair and the second chair in all cases is again b cm. Anyway, in alternative designs there are possibilities of a multiple amount of slot-holes at places where the peg-ends of the clamps can exercise their coupling function. Furthermore, windows can be made in the boards for decoration and also to lower weight. These windows can be chosen to be made circular, square or any other fantasy figure. The decorative alternatives are not shown in the figures.
In the desired design of clamps for coupling the chairs relate to clamps that are formed in a U-shape i.e. approximately halve a ring and having an elastic spring stiffness of steel that will not deform when applied in performance. By experience with a number of prototypes it was observed that clamps made from a rod with a diameter between 6 and 8 mm thickness and with peg-ends distance of 6 to 8 cm would suffice to make a successful coupling, particularly when such chairs are 25 cm of width and 17 cm of height.
To every small chair belong at least two clamps, implying that with every coupling of two chairs four clamps are used for the construction of a piece of doll furnishing. During construction the peg-ends of a clamp are tapped in the slot-holes preferably by a wooden stick or xe2x80x9cdesignxe2x80x9d club. The thin end of the xe2x80x9cdesignxe2x80x9d club or stick can be used as a leverage tool to lift the clamps out of their slot-holes for disassembling the furniture.
In an alternative design the planes of the boards at the sides together with the seat board and the ground level plane would form a cube.